Texas A&M International University (F.M Canseco School of Nursing)

The Canseco School of Nursing grew from the commitment of the Laredo community to address the unmet health needs of the city and surrounding border area. The curriculum, designed for the special needs of a culturally diverse population, is based on theories of transcultural nursing and human caring. The innovative, community-based curriculum combines mastery of acute clinical nursing competencies with effective community development strategies.

Approval was received in September 1994 for a Baccalaureate completion program for Registered Nurses, and the first students were admitted in January 1995. The RN/BSN program received full accreditation from the Texas Board of Nurse Examiners in May 1996. Following the graduation of the first student and in October 1997, the program earned 5 years Initial Accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission.

Success of the RN/BSN program and the increasing need for Registered Nurses in Laredo and the surrounding community led to approval of the Basic Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program for implementation in Fall 1998.

The growth and development of the Canseco School of Nursing has been made possible by the outstanding support received from the Laredo community. The Lamar Bruni Vergara Trust and Mercy Health Systems of Texas have provided funding for program development and faculty and student support. Spacious, state-of-the-art facilities in Canseco Hall and an endowed scholarship fund serve as a family memorial to noted Laredo physician and his wife, Dr. F. M. and Mrs. Consuelo Canseco.

MISSION STATEMENT

The faculty believe that the School of Nursing is in a unique position, as a result of geographic location and institutional affiliation, to prepare professional nurses to improve the well-being of complex and diverse populations. As an international city spanning the border between the United States and Mexico, Laredo (with its sister city Nuevo Laredo) offers a culturally, economically and politically unique setting in which health problems originating in either country merge as residents of Texas and Mexico live and work together.The faculty believe that professional nursing education must address a wide range of health beliefs in combination with dynamic political, social, economic and legal issues. The border setting provides students the opportunity to appreciate that people's health beliefs often vary in significant and meaningful ways, that solutions for health problems are defined by radically different health care contexts, and that measures for resolving or managing health problems are affected by economic and social value systems. Despite the complexities inherent in such an environment, the faculty are convinced that this bicultural setting affords an ideal opportunity for students to learn to appreciate that clients are unique, worthy of respect, and capable of making their own life choices about matters of health and illness.

The faculty believe that professional nurses have distinct educational needs and practice responsibilities. As adult learners, students enter the program with a foundation of knowledge and their own unique values, understandings and experiences. The faculty believe that nursing education is a lifelong process that includes formal and informal components, and that teaching and learning are reciprocal activities during which faculty and students learn from each other. To effectively serve a diverse population and to address rapid changes in health care systems and treatment, nurses must develop critical thinking skills which will enhance creative and flexible problem solving within their own practice. The faculty believe that diverse and changing health care needs can best be met by practice based on theory and research that is continually evaluating and modifying the standards of care. The faculty of the School of Nursing are committed to educating outstanding clinicians, scholars, health advocates, mentors and leaders who will be instrumental in addressing the health care needs of communities. The Faculty believe that strong communication skills are essential to enactment of these roles, and that professional nurses must also be increasingly concerned with the ethical, legal, political and socioeconomic dimensions of their practice. The faculty believe it is essential to promote the personal development and educational advancement of its students, to provide opportunities for research and creative expression, and to remain highly responsive through its educational program to the community. The Faculty believe that nurses graduating from this program will be instrumental in realizing the University's mission of improving the quality of life for citizens of South Texas and nearby international communities.

Nursing is a learned and complex therapeutic process through which the nurse engages individuals, families, or communities for the purpose of meeting health needs. Nurses understand health and illness to be relative conditions of human existence involving intricate balances between life experiences and biological phenomena. To be effective in the nursing role, the nurse is required to develop, synthesize, and work from a broad framework based on the humanities and the social and biological sciences. Furthermore, the unique nature of nurse-client relationships is derived from a broad understanding of the knowing of persons within their environments and the therapeutic use of self. Effective nurses design and implement innovative strategies that reflect caring through understanding, respect, appreciation, involvement, and advocacy.

Nursing roles and responsibilities in the 21st Century are likely to change significantly from nursing practice as we know it today. The current foundation of health information on which nurses must base their practices is often unclear concerning how many health problems can be prevented. Until research can provide explanatory and predictive models on which to build effective preventive strategies, much nursing time and effort will continue to be devoted to caring for people with health problems and helping people either regain health status jeopardized by illness or adapt to significant, permanent changes in health. Although the present structure of the U.S. health care system has dictated for decades that most of the nursing care provided to ill persons be delivered within institutional settings, current trends suggest that nurses will be increasingly involved in broader community-based health care models and systems. Institution-based care in the future will serve as a short-term, highly technical, and procedure-driven component of the larger community-based system. Nurses will be responsible for overseeing the health care of members of communities over prolonged time intervals. Demands for such changes in the nurses' role will require added emphases on analytic, education, leadership, and scholarship functions. It is also anticipated that nurses in the emergent health care system will need to provide and manage health care in ways that are cost-effective, consumer-oriented, and likely to result in optimal health.

There are many challenges which lie ahead for professional nurses. Community-based health care, including care provided in hi-tech institutions, will have to be culturally appropriate and connected with persons at some very personal and intimate level to be effective. Nursing education in a border community presents opportunities for the advancement of nursing practice through the examination and exploration of concepts of culture and human caring.

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F.M Canseco School of Nursing Nursing School Location

F.M Canseco School of Nursing Courses

CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH BEHAVIOR
This course examines relationships between cultural phenomena and health behavior. The meaning and expression of personal health behaviors are explored as consequences of family and community life set within developmental contexts. For both children and adults, the ways and conditions under which individuals define health status are explored. Cultural forces that enhance or reduce the capacity of individuals, families, or communities to maintain health are analyzed. Prerequisite: None..

NUTRITION
Life cycle nutrition is presented in conjunction with diet therapy principles. Nutritional assessments will include the influencing variables of culture, religion, economics, physiology, and medical regimen. Relevant research will be identified. Counseling and other interventions will be taught within the framework of the nursing process.

PHARMACOLOGY
Focuses on principles of pharmacology and drug classifications by body system; approaches clinical application of drug therapy through the nursing process. Nursing implications of drug therapy are emphasized and competency in dosage calculations is required. Regional and cultural variables affecting use of medications are discussed.

FOUNDATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL NURSING
This course provides the student with an organizing framework for defining professional nursing practice as a learned and complex therapeutic process through which the nurse engages individuals, families, or communities for the purpose of meeting health needs. Nursing philosophies are explored, with special emphasis given to interpretation of the influence of culture and caring on health. Processes deemed essential to professional nursing are emphasized, including informatics, critical thinking, nursing process, therapeutic communication and teaching-learning. Emerging nursing roles are examined within a historical and cultural context. The student is encouraged to consider a broad scope of roles in establishing a professional nurse identity with special attention to ecology, social justice, gender, and other ethical considerations.

BASIC NURSING SKILLS
This three-credit hour laboratory and clinical course provides an introduction to the psychomotor skills involved in providing basic nursing care to a culturally diverse population. Students are exposed to a variety of psychomotor skills applicable to nursing and other disciplines; such as body mechanics, vital signs, patient transport, range of motion exercises, hot and cold therapies, stress management, hygiene, skin and wound care, and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). In addition, through laboratory and clinical assignments students gain competence in nursing technique, including comfort measures, positioning and transporting, asepsis and sterile procedures, and therapeutic modalities related to preoperative and postoperative care. Students will be expected to apply critical thinking to their mastery of basic nursing skills. Opportunities for challenge exams available for currently licensed vocational or practical nurses with 2 years current medical-surgical hospital nursing experience.

PATHOPHYSIOLOGY
This course is a comprehensive study of underlying concepts common to the major pathophysiologic processes of the body. The influence of psychoneuroimmunologic mechanisms upon structure and function of the body s adaptive and compensatory needs will be explored. The interaction of age, life-style, culture, gender differences, and intrinsic and extrinsic environmental factors will be examined in relation to these psychoneuroimmunologic mechanisms. Emphasis is placed upon the pathophysiological concepts essential for understanding the rationale for preventive and therapeutic nursing interventions.

HEALTH ASSESSMENT
This seminar and lab course builds upon the theoretical basis for physical, social, psychological, and cultural assessment of clients. The student applies knowledge of pathophysiology of each body system from health assessments to determine nursing diagnoses. Students compile a health history which includes an assessment of cultural values, health beliefs, and caring practices. Legal and ethical issues implicated in obtaining and managing health data are explored. Students practice in a supervised laboratory setting the procedural steps of a comprehensive health assessment. The importance of the professional nursing role in health assessment is examined.

INTRODUCTION TO ADULT HEALTH NURSING
This six credit hour clinical course provides an introduction to culture specific caregiving for adult clients experiencing acute and chronic illnesses. An anatomical systems, adult life span approach will structure the course; critical thinking, research applications and professionalism are to be demonstrated.

MATERNAL/CHILD HEALTH NURSING
This course focuses on clinical application of the nursing process in providing culturally specific care to childbearing women and to infants, children, adolescents and their family systems during the child rearing period. Clinical experiences in acute care and community/school based settings provide students with the opportunity to apply primary, secondary and tertiary prevention within childbearing, child rearing family-client systems and women's health across their life span. Critical thinking, health promotion, family-centered care and cultural diversity are stressed. Each content area (childbearing and child rearing) will be covered over a 7 week period with appropriate unit and final examinations and clinical rotations.

PSYCHOSOCIAL NURSING
This clinical course focuses on culturally competent nursing care for persons experiencing alterations in mental health status, applying the nursing process with individuals,families and groups adapting to those alterations. Particular attention is given to cultural influences and caring psychosocial interventions in a variety of residential and community-based settings. Student competence in therapeutic communication, group process and the counselor role will be further developed.

NURSING RESEARCH
Nursing research focuses on the introductory use of the research process in the development of nursing knowledge and practice. Steps in the research process are detailed. Research questions are explored with regard for theoretical underpinnings, methods of data collection and analysis, and the interpretation and use of study findings in the care of individuals, families and communities.

NURSE ROLE AND PRACTICE TRANSITIONS
This course provides the student with an organizing framework for defining professional nursing practice as a learned and complex therapeutic process through which the nurse engages individuals, families, or communities for the purpose of meeting health needs. The health needs of individuals, families and communities are examined within relevant theoretical contexts. Nursing philosophies are explored, with special emphasis given to the interpretation of the influence of culture and caring on health.

CURRENT TOPICS
An in-depth focus upon current issues impacting the profession of nursing and/or the health of society. May be repeated when topic changes. Open to all students with permission of the instructor.

ISSUES IN TRANSCULTURAL NURSING
This course focuses on prominent national, state and local issues in nursing and health care. Key practice, education, and governance issues in nursing are examined in both historical and evolving contexts. Elements that determine the culture of nursing and health care organizations are considered with regard for inherent issues concerning the development of nursing roles. Students will explore political and legal foundations of the health care professions, the control of health care resources and decision making, and the rights and duties of providers and recipients of health care.

INTERNATIONAL HEALTH NURSING
This synthesis level course examines international problems and challenges within the context of current political-social-cultural-economic international realities. Looking at health and health care as a basic human right students will explore basic health-related concepts and trends within a global context. Immigration, socioeconomic conditions and environmental factors will be analyzed in relationship to border health. Special attention will be paid to the impact NAFTA and various "maquila" phenomena have had on border health, the profession of nursing and the future socioeconomic growth and/or development of the two Laredos.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN NURSING
In this theoretical and experiential course, current theories of management and leadership are examined and related to nursing practice. Leadership is examined as a process which can be learned. The essential components of this process include the knowledge and skills for the effective use of power as a positive force in bringing about desired change and influencing health care. Critical thinking is used to develop innovative and creative approaches to nursing practice through clinically related applications. Management theories are compared and contrasted in relation to nursing management and the nursing process.

COMPREHENSIVE EMERGENT CARE
This course focuses on the development of advanced nursing knowledge and skills in the acute care of high risk populations. Because students will have contact during the course with individuals and families from diverse cultural groups, health care problems and needs are examined with regard for the unique influences of divergent cultural, economic, and political forces. However, the emphasis of the course is on the mastery of competencies and confidence in the provision of direct nursing care to high risk individuals demanding emergent care.

COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING
Community health nursing emphasizes the development of knowledge and skills integral to working with communities. Epidemiological principles will provide the framework for conducting community assessments. Students will work in mutuality with community groups to assess their health care needs, emphasizing the cultural and environmental contexts of health problems. In partnership with this group, students will examine the entire range of health needs and resources (folk and traditional) available within this community, identify strengths and weaknesses of those resources, and work in partnership with the community to address its felt needs.

ADVANCED ADULT HEALTH NURSING
This course offers expanded knowledge based on clinical experiences in acute care settings. The focus of the course is providing culturally congruent comprehensive nursing care to adults with multi-system and complex health care needs. Post conferences will coordinate clinical experience with theory-based practice and ethical and legal ramification. During the 135 required hours of clinical practice, students will be introduced to the nurse's professional, provider and coordinator of care roles.

SENIOR LAB SEMINAR
This laboratory course provides in-depth diagnosis of mastery and reinforcement of all curricular content in basic nursing knowledge and skills. Critical thinking is used to apply the nursing process to plan and evaluate culturally based care for individuals, families and groups across the life span experiencing alterations in physical and psychosocial health. Computer assisted instruction and standardized testing are used to evaluate student readiness for professional licensure and practice. Successful completion of course requirements includes satisfactory performance on a nationally recognized standardized readiness evaluation instrument.

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